Oil Uptake by Potato Chips or French Fries: A Review

Abstract

The increase in obesity and fat‐related diseases pose a major health issue especially in developed countries. Over the past years, consumer demand for low‐fat potato chips and French fries has stimulated the scientific work on the issue of fat uptake during frying. The main objective of this review article is to summarize the latest efforts to reduce the oil absorption without deteriorating the organoleptic characteristics, precisely explain the mechanism, frying medium quality, and selection, different parameters involved in oil absorption and to address problems of the potato chips industry. Major oil uptake reduction techniques described in literature are use of different frying methods, coating with a hydrocolloid and use of pretreatments before frying process. Practical Application: High oil uptake in fried food is a cause of concern and people are getting health conscious day by day. So, this review article may help the potato chips industry to produce potato chips with low oil content. Furthermore, it will serve as a guidance document for industry to save some of the costs incurred in purchase of frying oil, which tend to be an expensive commodity. The relationship between frying and health risks emphasized the need to work on oil uptake reduction strategies. This review article provides a guidance for consumer and potato products industries about various oil uptake mechanisms, frying medium selection criteria, lowering strategies for oil absorption, and addresses various issues related to the potato chips industry.

Mechanisms of oil uptake during deep frying and applications of predrying and hydrocolloids in reducing fat content of chips

“…Although the effects of modifying the food surface by pretreatment has demonstrated to reduced oil uptake using the conventional deep frying method, the current technology such vacuum frying and air frying is alternatively becoming a trend in manufacturing low‐fat food (Arslan et al , ; Ayustaningwarno et al , ; Liberty et al , ).…”

“…Overall, the economic cost saving of using less oil in both recent technologies is attracting more food industries while meeting the increasing demand for high‐quality, low‐fat food. However, the expensive equipment and higher initial investment could lead to an increase in the cost of fried foods (Arslan et al , ).…”

Understanding the Frying Process of Plant-Based Foods Pretreated with Pulsed Electric Fields Using Frying Models

“…Gamble et al [34] found that oil uptake was closely related to the water loss (R 2 = 0.989) in potato slices in which the oil absorbed by potato slices was found accumulated in the voids left by the water evaporation. When the water bubbles escaped from food materials, they formed capillary pathways and increased the surface porosity [35].…”

“…However, the voids or capillary pathways are always filled with water during frying and the inner steam pressure may resist oil penetration. Sometimes, the oil is absorbed after the capillary (food material) is removed from the oil [35,37].…”

“…Potato tubers are high in starch, which is a semicrystalline biopolymer. When potatoes are cooked, starch starts to swell and its gelatinisation forms dense and starch-rich areas within the cells, which helps to reduces oil absorption upon frying and resist dehydration and shrinkage, while improving the texture of the cooked products [35]. Starch gelatinisation refers to the collapse of molecular organisation in the starch granule, leading to irreversible changes to its molecular properties resulting in water uptake, swelling, loss of crystallinity, loss of birefringence, unwinding of double helices, starch solubilisation and an increase in viscosity [50].…”